Baby Steps
by Nina Graph
Summary: It's hard to start a relationship when their timings are so mismatched. Maybe Tsuna needs a little speed up.
1. Prologue

_**Baby Steps**_

_**Prologue**_

It had been Nono's suggestion, surprisingly. Even though the man was gentle, he had never expected him to give such… _motherly_ advice- much less since they saw each other only once in a while, and only to discuss business matters.

"You should start writing a diary".

The old man had confessed he had kept something akin to a journal when he had just started his serious training as a boss, which had happened much earlier than Tsuna's. He had described how he had met each of his guardians, his strategies, attacks, important thoughts and reflections. All in all, it was more of a distant autobiography for him to remember the important events of his life.

Nono knew the hardships of going through a Vongola training, and also was aware that Tsuna was a rather emotional person, hence his suggestion.

Tsuna had taken the advice to heart, and started to write. He hadn't quite known how to do it at first, but he had resolved it was his diary so he could do whatever he wanted with it. Sometimes the writing was very messy and unclear, other times it was organized and pleasant to read, he even made small line drawings when he didn't know how to express himself with words.

In his diary, Tsuna wrote his most inner thoughts. He wrote about his feelings towards becoming the Tenth, his feelings of his friends, tutor and family, and even deeper things. He vented his frustrations and shared his happiness, his sadness and joy. His whole life was written in that diary.

Well, almost.

One day, Tsuna's diary changed. It happened just after Reborn's and the Arcobaleno's curse was lifted. His diary changed format, because Tsuna had started to write something else starting from the back, something that had to do with the one thought he had never dared write about. He had hinted it, yes, but he had never expressed it clearly until that moment.

Tsuna had started an encyclopedia.

If his teachers at school had seen it, they would've been proud. Tsuna's book had images and diagrams and definitions and colors. It was written clearly, organized, in a neat handwriting. The vocabulary and adjectives were excellent and thoughtful; the topics were explained clearly and in length. Seriously, even Reborn would've congratulated him.

If it hadn't been on the topic 'How to Seduce Hibari Kyouya', Tsuna's encyclopedia would've been a real hit.

-:-:-:-:-:-

_**It sounds bad coming from me… but that ending kicked ass :DD It's short but I'd rather divide this in many chapters than writing a single 20000000000-word one-shot. Sorry for missing Hibari's birthday! u.u**_

_**Love and many hugs,**_

_**NINA **_


	2. First Success

**FIRST SUCCESS**

"You look pathetic"

Tsuna understood that, aside from the early morning hit to the head; that was all the help he was going to get from his tutor. He forcefully pulled the brush away from his mat of hair, which didn't look any better than before, managing to rip some brown strands in the process. With tears in the corner of his eyes, he hastily buttoned his shirt in all the wrong ways possible and dashed to grab his backpack.

Reborn's eyes glittered as his student slipped in the same step as always and fell down the stairs. The backpack ripped when it flew through the air towards the opposite wall, freeing all the loose papers and notebooks that were inside of it, making them fall on Tsuna's head, which was already exhibiting a brand new bump from the fall.

He entered the kitchen with his broken bag and a sore forehead with another couple of hours to spare. Nana, who had just begun preparing breakfast, smiled tenderly at him, kissing his forehead and handing him an old spare backpack she owned when she went to high school.

Tsuna smiled and kissed her in return. Moms were such great inventions.

"Did the alarm ring earlier today, Tsu-kun?" she asked playfully. Tsuna rubbed his scalp sheepishly, taking a seat at the table.

"Uh… um, I just wanted to be early for once" he stuttered.

"That's the attitude, Tsu-kun! You're finally taking your responsibilities seriously, your dad would be so proud!" she beamed.

Reborn –God knows when the hell he had entered the kitchen –smirked from under his fedora, and Tsuna knew he knew, or at least suspected, the reason of his earliness. He put all his efforts into fighting down the blush that was creeping up his neck.

Nana set a plate of toasts and bacon and a glass of milk in front of him. It was the first time in a long time he could quietly seat and enjoy his breakfast without rushing or having someone trying to steal his food, since Reborn was busy with his own espresso.

He went out with half an hour to spare; kissing his mom on the cheek and making sure Reborn was busy with some Vongola affairs that had come up. He strolled down the sidewalk calmly, and when he was far enough, he hastily pulled his blue notebook out of the bag. He blushed as he scanned the pages and reached the last one, the one he had been reading last night.

_Hibari-san likes neat things,_ the page read. _He's very organized clean, he doesn't like when people litter the town or school, and his uniform is always spotless. He also __**APRRECIATES PUNCTUALITY**__ and responsibility._

The last sentence made him go through his things once again. During the weekend he had prepared various folders and done the homework for the week. He had bought and agenda –the last one had been vandalized with doodles of his teachers done in moments of boredom–and put all his notes up to date with Gokudera's and Kyoko's help.

He realized he was reaching the school gate and quickly put the notebook away. He checked his uniform: his shirt was a little wrinkled, but his necktie was tied alright, and his trousers were neat, too. His hair was hopeless, as the comb had graphically explained to him that morning, but he hoped it looked at least a little more tamed than usual. All in all, if someone had come across him, they would had noticed the difference in his appearance only if they had squinted their eyelids. And that was exactly what he was looking for, for now.

The school's gates weren't open yet. He sighed in relief and texted Gokudera, telling him not to pick him up that morning. He put his notebook away when he saw Ryohei run past by doing his daily jogging, and waved at him nervously. At that moment, Kusakabe-sempai emerged from the building with a set of keys.

"Sawada" he said, surprised, as he cleared the way for him. "Do you know it's an hour before class starts? Did your alarm broke?"

Tsuna scratched his cheek and smiled sheepishly, a little shy (and a little offended).

"Good morning, Kusakabe-sempai…" he said.

"Ah, yeah, sorry. Um, good morning" the older one answered, equally embarrassed.

"I just felt like coming early today… Not like I can come early only when I feel like it! I'll just be coming early from now on…" _Hopefully_, he added mentally.

"Oh, well, that's good" Kusakabe said, shrugging. It wasn't any of his business in any case, he had been surprised, that's all.

"U-uh… ah… do you know if Hibari-san is here yet?" the brunet asked as casually as he could, stopping on his way towards the building.

"Yeah, he's probably in the reception room. Don't worry, he's usually in a good mood in the morning" Kuasakabe said kindly.

"Ah, yeah, um, thank you! Have a nice day, sempai" he stuttered, running into the school and tripping with the stairs in the process.

There were no classrooms on the floor of the reception room, a fact for which both students and Hibari were thankful for. The school generally had the structure of a hospital (or state prison), a long hallway with rooms on each side, or windows in the case of the front, and staircases on each end. That way, no one saw it necessary to pass in front of the reception room to go from one floor to another. So technically, not only the room, but the whole area was Hibari's territory.

If Tsuna was caught there, he wouldn't have any excuse or forgiveness from the prefect. This was the most stupid idea he could've come up with! (Not like he was known for his smart choices, anyways).

He had been hesitating at the left staircase for fifteen minutes, not quite deciding whether to step up or not. He had no excuse to be there, but as his friends weren't around, there was hardly any chance anything could go wrong –unless Reborn tried to make a surprise appearance and blow up something, namely the reception room –and if he wasn't breaking the rules nor crowding, plus Hibari-san was in a good mood! So his physical integrity was in theory safe.

The plan was simple: walk down in front of the reception room as many times as necessary in hopes to catch Hibari-san going out and wish him a good morning in the most serious –and attractive, if he could pull it off –way he could muster.

The problem was that he could barely look at the guy in the eyes, much less talk to him, much less do it in an appealing way, much less go on and leave a cool impression. He would surely start blushing and stuttering and say something stupid, or he would trip with a random object and fall into Hibari-san and get killed, or he would just freeze and get Hibari-san annoyed and get killed, or Reborn could appear and use some of his devices and make his clothes disappear and he would end up dead from embarrassment…

The doorknob of the reception room made a 'click' sound. He sprinted down the hallway, his worries suddenly disappearing, and stopped in his tracks as a figure emerged.

Hibari-san was carrying a stack of paperwork, looking through it distractedly, but Tsuna didn't have much time before his presence was acknowledged. Stiffly, almost robotically, he started to walk again, his hands balled in fists and his mouth dry.

"G-Good morning, Hibari-san" he said, almost choking on the words. From the way he felt heat pooling in his cheeks, he highly doubted that sentence had come out cool. And he had stuttered!

"Hn" Hibari answered, not even looking at him before turning to the opposite direction to which Tsuna was going.

The brunet didn't stop. He went on and up towards the roof, sure that no one would be there yet. He walked towards the edge and stopped, looking down the fence that prevented anyone from falling. He leaned against it, letting out the breath he had been holding, and allowed a big bright smile to take over his face.

Hibari-san had answered to his greetings. He hadn't sounded annoyed, he hadn't glared, and he had answered to him in a civilized way. The blush that had crept up his cheeks intensified.

Making sure once again that he was alone, he reached into his backpack. At the very bottom of it, there was a slightly creased roll of paper. When Tsuna untied the red ribbon holding it together, it unrolled down to the floor and beyond his feet - the scroll was around two meters long.

Short sentences were written all over it, below a title in bold that indicated "Steps", each one with a box next to it. With a red marker, Tsuna ticked the first box.

_First step: greet Hibari-san._

He sighed dreamily as he held the plan to his chest. First step completed. Only 423 to go!

_**Minutes earlier**_

Hibari looked through his recently signed paperwork, when he spotted a spelling mistake on a form.

"Hn" he muttered, marking it on the corner so he could show it to the useless teacher who had made it. He turned his head around when he thought had heard steps, but saw no one. He shrugged and went on his way.

_**Here's FINALLY the second chapter of "Baby Steps". I sort of got nothing planned out for this. To be honest, I wanted the previous chapter to be a really long one-shot, but before I had realized it I had written that last kickass sentence and realized this story had potential! I might change the summary a bit, though, because I want this to be really long (if people like it -3-) and that might change some aspects of the plot . As always, feedback is appreciated, and if I have spelling or grammar mistakes don't' doubt to tell me :))) Thank for reading!**_

_**-Nina**_

_**PS: All the excuses for the delay of this chapter can be read at the "Pointless Rants And Poor Excuses That Are Meaningless To The General Public" corner below.**_

_**POINTLESS RANTS AND POOR EXCUSES THAT ARE MEANINGLESS TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC CORNER**_

_**I've started a new school in March (because that's autumn in here) and it's getting me stressed, because it had this international program in which I have extra subjects in English and they're driving my MAD. I spent ten hours at school, and I don't know how it is in other countries but here it's a lot! I can never manage my times, because when I get home and rest for, say, an hour, it's already night time! Besides that, I'm taking some exams which are the finals for some two-year courses, and of course, as I wasn't there last year, I've got to study the syllabus all on my own! And I've got so much homework! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! **_


End file.
